human security in an uufinished state - Helsinki Committee for ...

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
During 2005, serious public concern and reaction were caused by
several cases of family violence, especially against children, whose brutality
shocked the citizens of Serbia. Although the Family Law 9 , which improves the
protection of women and children in the family to a significant degree, was
adopted at the beginning of the year, the whole society and institutions proved
to be unprepared for an adequate reaction. When a few acts of violence ended
with the death of children, the government bodies were forced to take
immediate action. This resulted in the joint and coordinated activities of
several ministries and institutions (the Ministries of Labour, Employment and
Social Policy, the Interior, Education, Justice and Health, the Serbian
Government’s Council for the Rights of the Child, the Centre for the Rights of
the Child, etc.), while the Serbian Government, on 25 August, adopted the
General Protocol on the Protection of Children Against Abuse and Neglect. On 7
October already, the Framework for the National Anti-Violence Strategy and the
Draft Law on the Child’s Ombudsman were also presented and their adoption is
expected at the spring session of the Serbian Parliament. The Family Law
introduced many novelties in the area of family relations, including specifically
the right of the victim of violence to remain in the flat or the house regardless
of the right of ownership or tenancy. In view of the fact that the most frequent
victims of family violence in Serbia are women and children and that flats and
houses are owned by men in almost 90 per cent of cases, such a solution
represents a radical step forward. The enforcement of the Law began on 1 July,
so that there are still no data on its effectiveness, but there is no doubt that it
will depend in large measure on the adequate and timely reaction by the
police, judiciary and social services. Otherwise, this is the first time that the
provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified 15
years ago, are explicitly stipulated. The Law also provides for new
mechanisms for child protection, while at the same time improving the existing
ones; there are also many novelties in the area of marital relations, which
points to the intention of the society to devote itself seriously to redefining the
family.
There is no doubt that the greatest problem relating to family relations
and children’s rights also lies in undeveloped social awareness, which treats
the family and violence against women and children as a private matter and
not as a social problem of paramount importance, or as an essential element of
human rights and the generally adopted democratic standards. In this case too,
the competent government bodies have no systematized data or uniform
compulsory contribution towards financing party activities. As expected, such a
synchronous position of the representatives of the legislative authority, not one
government body found it necessary to carry out an investigation. The Administrative
Committee of the Serbian Parliament changed the disputed provisions, but only after
the extensive media coverage of this topic for days and under strong public pressure.
9 Official Gazette of the RS, No. 18/05, 24 February 2005.
Human Security in an Unfinished State
recording and tracking system. After the adoption of the Family Law, the
Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy prepared the appropriate
bylaws 10 and announced the provision of other mechanisms that should
educate the population, improve gender equality and strengthen the protection
of women and children.
The situation is all the more complex, because family relations and the
position of women and children are in a casual relationship with poverty,
which is the crucial social and political problem in Serbia. According to the
research carried out in 2005, 20 per cent of the population is poor, while
according a comprehensive survey, which was conducted in 2002 for the
purpose of preparing the Poverty Reduction Strategy, 11 there is 10.6 per cent of
the poor. At his press conference on 10 October 2005, Minister Slobodan
Lalović explained such a difference by the application of different criteria: in
the comprehensive survey of 2002, all those having less than 2.4 dollars a day
were considered to be poor, while in 2005 this limit was 2.9 dollars, which
means that all those having less than 6,000 dinars each per month are
considered to be poor.
The hardest hit by poverty, apart from women and children, are the
oldest citizens of Serbia – pensioners, who have become real hostages of the
government’s quasi-idea about the state of social justice. The economically
exhausted state, in which all segments of society are ruined and closer to
welfare considerations than to a healthy recovery, required fast and radical
reforms so as to be laid on a sound foundation. Such measures were also
necessary in the area of old-age pension insurance, so that the work on the
amendments to the Law on Old-Age Pension and Disability Insurance 12 was in the
focus of attention of the experts, various power brokers, trade unions and,
naturally, pensioners almost throughout the year. The problem of illiquid
pension funds is faced by all countries in transition, but they addressed it in
different ways. For example, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania reduced the
pensions to 40 per cent of the average pay, because their governments decided
that their impoverished economies could not bear a heavier burden.
Conversely, the average pension in Serbia cannot be below 60 per cent of the
average pay, so that half the amount required for the payment of pensions is
subsidized from the budget. Such a solution remained as a concession to the
trade unions and the Socialist Party of Serbia, without whose support the Law
would not be adopted.
10 Official Gazette of the RS, Nos. 56/05, 60/05, 63/05 and 67/05.
11 For more detail about the results of this, hitherto most serious survey of the
standard of living and the Poverty Reduction Strategy, see the 2002 Annual Report
“Human Rights in the Shadow of Nationalism – Serbia 2002”, Helsinki Committee for
Human Rights in Serbia, Belgrade 2003.
12 The Law Amending the Law on Old-Age Pension and Disability Insurance,
Official Gazette of the RS, No. 85/05, 29 September 2005.
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